Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

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How’s Work?

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How’s work?

There’s a question we often get asked. The typical response is something like “Fine” or “OK.”

But is it really?

For many people work translates into a job—a mere means of provision to support the family. A steady income doesn’t mean a steady life.

Work isn’t necessarily fulfilling or rewarding at a deeper level.

It is just a paycheck on the way to the weekend where real life is lived. In today’s economy, it is easy to look around and feel lucky just to have the regular income.how's work

A sad reflection of this reality is the current trend of companies offering work-life balance programs in the workplace. But work-life balance is a myth. These programs, regardless of how well intended they are, reveal a sad reality on both the employer and the employee side.

Our lives and our work are so dangerously enmeshed that we need help separating ourselves from our work.

We’re workaholics in jobs that don’t really matter to us all that much. In other words, fear of loss motivates us more than what we have to gain. Too many of us are resigned to an unhealthy settling for work-life balance as an easy compromise over developing a healthy work-life integration. Have we just given up hope?

Isn’t all this talk of work-life balance code for “my job is sucking the very life out of me, but I need it to pay the bills, so I guess I will die trying to make it work”?

Fortunately, someone in HR has figured out that if we can equip you to learn work-life balance you won’t burn out or die as quickly on the job. This means you’ll keep being productive and won’t be such a drain on the company health care benefits program for a while longer.

Is it just me or is there something horribly skewed in this picture?

What if life and work are true blessings where work is a high and noble expression of our calling—and a steady income? Is this possible?

Can life and work be meaningfully integrated instead of separated and balanced?

Tell me if I’m wrong.

How Authentic Is Your Personal Brand?

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Caution SignCAUTION: The text that follows may disturb and upset you, especially later in this blog post. The words are offered in the spirit of truth in love. If you are offended or hurt, then you needed to read them more than you understand right now.

The integration of your personal brand and personal identity will improve both your life and your work life.

Investing time to anchor your personal brand in the bedrock of your being will prosper you, plus the world will be a better place because of you.

The desire, ability, and effort to be authentic requires us to overcome the natural decay or decline within us. In other words, being reactive, negative, and pessimistic is easy. This “laziness about life” is like emotional gravity that’s relentlessly pulling our spirits downward into a dark place.

Given this force of nature, a decision to be true to one’s greater good followed by effort in action is non-negotiable if we’re to be our authentic selves.

The marketplace is tough enough as it is. When we’re trying to “fake it until we make it” we are inauthentic—merely actors playing the role of some fictional character crafted in the deceit of our mind’s making. The script can only work so far until soon our sense of self, right and wrong, and how to make honorable decisions is so compromised that we lose our moral center.

When we no longer know who we are, we can no longer trust or develop our instinct and conscience.

Nor can other people. When people can’t trust us they guard themselves from us. This translates into lost opportunities we never even knew we missed. Doors don’t open. Referrals and recommendations don’t flow our way.

Living in a false construct is destructive.

We’re set up for the fall personally or professionally or both. Living a lie always comes with a price. Covering up our failure of authenticity invariably exacerbates the problems to ourselves and for others into full bloom. “Nipping it in the bud” has always been sage advice.

Business - unfinished businessDo you find your life to be growing in complication and overly busy? Busyness distracts us from our unfinished business.

Is now the time to assess your personal brand, including the image you portray?

Soul searching is truly good for the soul and good for business. 

Some of the hallmarks of authentic leaders are

  • patience
  • trust
  • honesty
  • action
  • perspective
  • calm

These are inner traits—some of which are hard-wired into us at birth. Most, however, are etched through the blessed pain of mistakes made, forgiveness sought, redemption made, and lessons learned.

Instinctively, you sense the unpredictable trajectory of your high risk–low reward behavior. You know that it is fraught with failure. Because if you rationalize “optimism,” which is really recklessness, the inevitable consequences catch up to your deceptive practices. If living lies is ruining your life, then make the tough shift of diverting from your present course.

It is never too late to have a new start.

Do a gut check. For example, the physical world reveals spiritual truths. Look at your waist. If you’ve got excess inches around your belly then here’s a clue—you’re living a lie that somKWM Before and Afterehow your self-inflicted overindulgence will not affect your health. Right! Guess again.

How do I know about this inauthentic personal brand of living a lie?

Look at my chipmunk cheeks back in 2008 and me today. Who was headed for heart disease, high blood pressure, or type 2 diabetes? I was on the inevitable downward trajectory from bad habits, poor choices, and lack of understanding. That was the easy part to fix! It was the software programming within my mind and emotions that was the greater challenge.

  • How could I be on-purpose carrying around a 50-pound load every day?
  • How much more authentic am I when I’m not self-inflicting harm?
  • How could I expect to prosper the planet when I was damaging and endangering myself?

The burden of excess weight dragged me down physically which affected my mind, spirit, and opportunities.

Are you ready to reverse and renew your life?

Have you reached the breaking point where the price of living a lie spoken upon you or self-manufactured and maintained has become a string of overwhelming lies that fray the very soul of your authenticity and identity? Reach out for help now. Recalibrate and realign the trajectory of your life. Time can be an enemy that reveals or a friend who heals. Begin the healing!

Reclaim your true identity.

Here are practical next step suggestions:

  • Reread The On-Purpose Person.
  • Download the free Discovery Guide and figure out what matters most to you.
  • Get one-on-one coaching from a Life Coach of your choice or from me.
  • Get on the path to being healthy. If you know a Health Coach contact him or her. If you want to talk with one, contact me and I’ll coach you in the program that helped me lose 50 pounds, or I’ll refer you to a Health Coach on our team.

On-Purpose Logo tag w colorThe tag line of On-Purpose begins with “Be Yourself.” Incorporate this simple statement into your decision-making. The less you pose, the more you will be and become the authentic leader of your life you know you are.

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This On-Purpose Minute is a contribution I made to Crowned Grace International, an organization led by my colleague and friend Dr. Stephanie Parson.

Are You In A Critical Condition?

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A natural edge turned wood bowl made of peach woodImage via Wikipedia

Looking around it can get pretty discouraging.

Honest skepticism and discernment are always at a premium, yet as of late with bad news abounding, I find myself (and others) falling prey to being hypercritical and running into a negative streak.

The effect is

  • compounding
  • self-fulfilling
  • contagious

Today’s On-Purpose® Minute offers great hope and a couple of practical suggestions.

Turn your critical condition into a healthy state of being.

It isn’t easy, but it outshines the alternative.

Perhaps you have an idea or two to tap into your greater good and get out of being in a critical condition. Please share your wisdom and insights in the comments section below.

What’s the Deal with Time Management?

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Was this On-Purpose Business Minute a gut check in your life?

Did you come to a realization that time isn’t your challenge, but it is your lack of clarity around your values and your purpose?

You’re a person in business, especially with your busyness. You’ve heard it said, “Time is money,” and “Time is your most precious resource.”

Anxiously, you check your phones and watches; arrange calendars and appointments; sync your tablets, phones, and computers; and use many “labor saving” devices. Yet, you feel the need for more and more time and believe more tools, and—maybe—a new app will make the difference. Wrong!

Do your checklists and to-do lists just keep getting longer and longer? Does it seem that the longer you’re alive the more behind you are? Yep!

So how’s time management working for you?

Admit it if you feel like you’re squandering your time far too much of the time. Get real with yourself about it so you can actually do something about it.

Stop blaming time.

Time doesn’t care, know, feel, or think. It only on marches on.

So what is “poor time management” costing you?

  • Are you feeling stressed and stretched so thin that you’re catching yourself wondering, “Is this as good as life gets?”
  • Are you trading your days on the planet for dollars in your pocket?
  • Does having your life built on sand instead of a firm foundation leave you anxious and concerned for your future and the well-being of your family and business?
  • Are you finally ready to arrest the craziness of busyness?

Please let me help you.

We offer an 8-session one-on-one personal and professional advisory experience based on The On-Purpose Person where you will fill in the gaps within the foundation of your life and work. Over the phone, we’ll have eight 75- to 90-minute sessions that will stir your heart and disturb your thinking. And then we’ll integrate it all around what matters most for you so you’ll finally be an on-purpose person in creation.

Looking to improve your personal leadership quotient? Consider the On-Purpose Personal Leadership Coaching program. Your investment is just $1,500 and the return is a lifetime improvement in every facet of your life.

There’s also an OP Executive Coachingexecutive coaching version of the program for $4,500 where we integrate your life and business so you can do more of what you do best more profitably.

Do You Have a Funny View On-Purpose?

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Classic OP Minute from Nov. 17, 2009

Purpose statements are challenging to write.

Most who write them are confused about the basic concept and structure so the end product is flawed, often with humorous benefit. Some are just poking fun or trying to be funny.

In today’s On-Purpose® Minute I’ve culled from Twitter some “enlightening” points of view about the purpose of life. I hope you’ll find the wit and wisdom refreshingly entertaining.Two women laughing. Text states "Your purpose is what?"

To follow me on Twitter, I’m @kevinwmccarthy. For Twitter users, if you want to reference some on-purpose work, then please use #onpurpose.

Have you seen some funny thoughts about the purpose of life?

Please share them below.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Are Business Plans Still Relevant?

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What’s your business plan?

What? Don’t have one? Don’t put it off much longer!

With the ever-increasing speed of business, can business plans keep pace? In this On-Purpose Business Minute, let’s explore the shift in the nature and the need of business plans.

We’re in an era of people and speed—two generally opposing forces.

Most of us don’t embrace change readily or easily. This resistance slows down the speed of the organization and growth that is so sought by the organizational leadership and demanded by the marketplace. By embracing this basic understanding of human nature and the inherent conflict you’ll be wiser and smarter about what to do.

Armed with this insight about the change–speed challenge, the logical question is What to do about the need for speed and change.

  • First, accept it.
  • Second, manage it by going to the deep strategy—purpose, vision, mission, and values. These “clinical” understandings of the corporate culture need to be communicated via strategic stories that infuse and educate the team about why what they’re doing makes a difference. In other words, resistance to change falls by the wayside when the opportunity before us is contribution to a greater good. In fact, we get anxious (in a good way) and excited to see it come about. Now speed is what the team wants.
  • Third, make the connection between a traditional business plan and the purpose of your organization.

Much is written these days about corporate culture.

  • But what is it really?
  • How is it shaped?
  • What needs to happen to create and sustain it?

Deep strategy is the start in the form of an elegant business plan.

If you are a start-up or small business with ambition, then get ahead of the curve today by planning your corporate culture. If you’re leading a larger organization, then you can truly get big gains by going deep. It is more complicated the larger the business, but it is all manageable.

Do you have the “deep strategy” strength and clarity in place to engage and inspire your team so they’ll advance and accelerate the organizational goal?

Need help? Contact me.

What Is Money Worth to You?

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What is money worth?

After watching and reading this On-Purpose Minute, I invite you to comment below.

Money, life, and work are interwoven life themes. Your money perspective paints your financial outlook. Here’s a preview:

Money matters!

There isn’t a day in your adult life when you’re not handling money.

Consider all we do with money:

  • exchanging money for time
  • making money on the job
  • spending money for groceries, goods, and services
  • doing money makeovers
  • investing money
  • counting money
  • worrying over money
  • saving money
  • wasting money

There are nefarious aspects of money such as counterfeiting money, stealing money, embezzling money, and “following the money.” The list could go on.

Money is everywhere. Money moves and measures the economy.

Money is our storehouse of value. Money is in our pockets and purses. Money rests on our dressers, in our drawers, and under our mattresses. When we’re short of money and long in the month, we’re worried.

Money can be the currency of a relationship, as in a couple fighting over money, investing for retirement, or saving for a home down payment. Money opens doors to social standing and status. There are people with old money and new money. Money can define a parent–teen relationship. There’s mad money. And then there’s money madness.

Money has meaning but it isn’t the source of meaning and worth.

It can be a source of security, income, worry, emotional stability or instability, the driver of our decisions, and generous giving.

Artists and theologians weigh in with gold nuggets of money advice:

1 Timothy 6:10 informs,

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Did you catch that last phrase, “and pierced themselves with many griefs”? Talk about self-inflicted problems! Money is the result of service, provided there is a mechanism in place for a fair exchange of value.

Pink Floyd’s Money lyrics (first stanza below) from their album Dark Side of the Moon reflects the dilemma with the almighty dollar:

Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon album cover
Click the cover to order from amazon.

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you’re O.K.
Money it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team
Money get back
I’m all right Jack keep your hands off my stack.
Money it’s a hit
Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit
I’m in the hi-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet
Money it’s a crime
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie
Money so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise it’s no surprise that they’re
giving none away

In a prior On-Purpose Minute titled, “How’s Your Trust Account?” I invite viewers to consider where their trust is located … really.

Previously, I asked you to consider what you would do differently with $100,000 in your pocket.

Money will become whatever you choose it to become.

Will you become a slave to it or will you be the master of it? Come to terms with your attitude toward money. Money can be a source of great confusion and consternation. It can also be a source for provision and blessing.

Money can help you be on-purpose! Every time you use it, ask yourself, “Am I spending or am I investing this money?” Then consider if you are spending time or investing your time.

Ask yourself this simple question: What is money to me? Now you’re invited to chip in below with your comment to the question: What is money?

Let me hear from you!

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

P.S. Perhaps you remember this “Show me the money!” scene from the movie Jerry Maguire.

How Do You Measure Your Meaning or Purpose In Life?

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[This question in the blog post title was posted on Quora. Below is my response.]

Life is 100% meaningful so there’s no need to measure it. The simplest explanation is this, in the cosmic sense either life is meaningful or it is isn’t.

In some scientific manner, I can’t prove that life is meaningful. So it takes a leap of faith, not necessarily religion, to embrace the concept of absolute meaning. In short, each of us gets to choose our absolute worldview: either life is meaningful or it is not. Semi-meaningful isn’t a choice.

Given the choice of life is meaningful or meaningless, why choose coloring your life with the despair and hopelessness of the latter? Even when the current condition or situation or relationship appears meaningless, meaning is at work in the background waiting to frame it with hope and possibilities. It means being expectant and seeking it. The other option casts us deep into the darkness of the ultimate “living” void.

Purpose provides a more personal connection to the cosmic meaning of life. It’s our unique understanding of who we are and how we belong on the planet. Purpose, like meaning, is always present in our lives.

Where it gets confusing is our awareness of whether we are on our purpose–aligned with and giving expression to our purpose or not. That’s being on-purpose or off-purpose, respectively.

“Highest and best use” is a term used in the appraisal (measurement) industry. In times of “highest and best use” of the expression of purpose we’re apt to check the box and say, “Yes, that’s meaningful.” In “bad times,” we’re erroneously declaring, “That’s not meaningful.”

The measure of meaning, therefore, is relative against an absolute benchmark. In this sense, how meaning is measured is up to the individual to define their version of “highest and best use” and “lowest and worse use” and all that is in between.

The point is this: you have one life that is rich in meaning and capable of higher and better expression of your purpose. Your choice is free of your current condition or circumstance. Therefore, choose the life is meaningful worldview and you’ll inherently have a 100%.